1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical filters and pertains particularly to tunable Fabry-Perot etalon cavity filters utilizing liquid crystals.
2. Background of the Invention
Optical filters have a wide variety of applications, particularly in optical communications networks. Such filters are useful for separation of certain signals from within bands of signals.
Fiber optic networks have come into wide use for both voice and data telecommunications in recent years. Filters are widely used in these networks to separate certain signals from the bands of signals. One of the simplest filters used in such networks is the tunable Fabry-Perot filter. The Fabry-Perot filter consists of a cavity bound on each end by a partially silvered mirror.
In general, existing solutions for telecommunications applications typically have one of two drawbacks. They either: 1) require moving parts, which is undesirable; or 2) are solid state with polarization dependence and a small tuning range.
The Fabry-Perot filter can be tuned by moving one of the mirrors. One of the primary techniques of the past has been to attach one of the mirrors to a piezoelectric crystal and change the voltage across the crystal to tune the filter. The crystal can be controlled to the point that one can get accuracy of movement of less than the diameter of an atom. That is quite satisfactory for some applications but far too slow for proposed applications such as optical packet switching.
Another approach to tuning such filters is to change the refractive index (RI) of the material inside the cavity of the filter. This can be accomplished by filling the gap or cavity with a liquid crystal material. The RI of the liquid crystal material can be changed very quickly by applying a voltage across it. Tuning times for this type filter are reported by be around ten msec but in theory sub-microsecond times should be attainable. One problem with filters of this type is that they are polarization sensitive. Another problem is that they have a very narrow or small tunable range.
Some early approaches used well ordered nematic and smectic liquid crystals that possessed a well defined optic axis on a macroscopic scale (greater than the wavelength of light). Such a device exhibits many desirable characteristics, namely, broad tuning range, low voltages, and low loss. However, these devices are intrinsically sensitive to the polarization of the incident light.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,749 discloses an approach which overcomes some of the polarization problems by the imposition initially of a particular orientation on the molecules of the liquid crystal material. This approach, however, has a number of drawbacks, including a very thin/narrow tunable range.
More recently, attempts employing a tunable cavity based on a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) to overcome the polarization problem have been made. A PDLC consists of a sponge-like polymer layer whose voids are filled with liquid crystal. The PDLC element is created by an ultraviolet-light-driven polymerization process, which is a chemical reaction. Even if the process starts with 50% liquid crystal, after polymerization it is likely that only about 10% of the liquid crystal will be in a switchable droplet form when the process is completed. In other words, the PDLC does not provide a precisely controllable volume fraction of liquid crystal in the final product. The shortcomings of this system result from the fact that the droplets typically form by phase separation of the polymer and liquid crystal. The droplet size can be controlled to some extent by controlling the polymerization kinetics. However, droplet size is inversely proportional to the volume fraction of the material that phase separates out of the polymer and liquid crystal mixture. This process does not facilitate precise control of droplet size so polarization independence is not complete. Therefore, these PDLC devices generally have a small effective index modulation depth or range, typically about 5-10 nm, and are subject to large attenuation of the optical signals by the organic matrix in which the liquid crystal is embedded. The attenuation results from the fact that the polymer in the PDLC absorbs in the infrared.
Therefore there is a need for a tunable filter that overcomes the above problems of the prior art. More specifically there is a need for a filter that is polarization insensitive, has minimal attenuation, and is electronically tunable over a usefully wide range.
It is a primary purpose of the present invention to overcome the above problems of the prior art, creating a tunable Fabry-Perot filter having low cost, a broad tuning range, low voltage and low loss.
In accordance with this purpose, the tunable Fabry-Perot etalon filter employed in this invention comprises a pair of opposed, at least partially reflective, generally parallel surfaces positioned to form a cavity therebetween, and a controlled nano-dispersion of liquid crystals disposed in a matrix in the cavity. Means for applying an electric field to the liquid crystals can be added to make the filter controllable as to the optical wavelengths it will pass.
Employing a matrix formed by using precisely controlled spherical shapes that are driven off as the matrix material is fused enables the matrix to include small, irregularly positioned liquid crystal droplets. This results in polarization independence. Since the matrix structure is formed in a controlled manner, a structure with about 50% to about 68% liquid crystal by volume is achievable. This relatively large fraction of liquid crystal droplets in the matrix, which are switchable, facilitates a tuning range of about 30 nm. By using a metal oxide for the matrix in which the liquid crystal droplets reside, the attenuation factor is minimized because metal oxides are transparent to the infrared.
The metal-oxide matrix, formed according to the invention, creates a template of holes which are filled with liquid crystal droplets.